Side content — skip it or do it as you go?

I want to get ahead of this before it becomes a habit. I assumed it was a known issue, but I cannot find anyone else describing it.

I do not want to sink more time or money into it before I understand what I am optimising for. Curious whether that matches what everyone else is seeing.

Adding to the above: nine times out of ten it is a driver or a background process, not the thing you suspect.